Technically there has been one "Carrington Event" in recorded history. The base term for that event is a geomagnetic storm caused by an Interplanetary Coronal Mass Ejection (ICME), ie a CME from the sun that reaches Earth and then shocks the magnetosphere into releasing massive amounts of energy, which induces current overloads in electrical circuits and transmission lines.

Of course smaller ones happen relatively frequently (we had one this year in fact), but it was only with the advent of electrical distribution (power, telegraph) that the effects were readily noticeable by society, which is why history really only records one "big one", and the rest have to be found the ice and rock strata.

Technically there has been one "Carrington Event. The base term for that event is a geomagnetic storm caused by an Interplanetary Coronal Mass Ejection (ICME), ie a CME from the sun that reaches Earth and then shocks the magnetosphere into releasing massive amounts of energy, which induces current overloads in electrical circuits and transmission lines.

True, and I suppose I could try to be more technically accurate in my countdown of cataclysms, but I'm trying to be...

PANIC-INDUCING!!!

"Coronal Mass Ejection" sounds like an STD symptom, and "Magnetosphere" sounds like something out of an X-Men comic.

True, and I suppose I could try to be more technically accurate in my countdown of cataclysms, but I'm trying to be...

PANIC-INDUCING!!!

"Coronal Mass Ejection" sounds like an STD symptom, and "Magnetosphere" sounds like something out of an X-Men comic.

I wasn't trying to correct you but trying to point out is that, as of right now, the Carrington Event is still unique in human history (in how a fast ICME would noticeably disrupt society).

There have been many ICMEs but only one Carrington, and that occurred in 1859.

A Carrington-sized ICME event today would make Carrington look like peanuts...ibecause once the damage was assessed....we wouldn't be calling it a "Carrington Event" any longer.

Interesting foot note...in 1862 three years later, a young Thomas Edison would become trained as a telegraph operator with a fascination with electricity, eventually submitting a patent for electrical distribution in 1880.

One has to wonder what effect the Carrington Event had on the twelve year old Edison's imagination.

What's funniest is even though Westinghouse's and Tesla's AC distribution designs won out over Edison's DC (for long distance distro), it is exactly that kind of power distribution that is most at risk from large ICMEs.

Modern direct current systems (e.g. most battery powered items) would probably survive fine, meaning batteries would become like gold with the failure of AC power distribution.

I've always had trouble beleiving the "hostile alien invader" thing for a couple of reasons. Even when presented by brilliant people like Steven Hawking (when he said that aliens visiting Earth could be as negative for us as the arival of the conquistadors was for the native americans.)

Now I'm not going to call "bullshit" on Hawkings hypothesis. In it's context I think he is right on, but it forces us to assume some things about these hypothetical invaders that are not very practical.

1) They are as violent and selfish as we are. Possible, but how likely? The only thing we can safely assume is that their history and point of reference has nothing to do with our own experience. They would not have the same predjudices or historical hatreds that fuel conflict on our own world. They would not likely be descended from violent simians. That history is our history. It belongs to no one else. They may not necesarilly have minds or biology geared towards conquest. Their entire value system may be as alien to us as their bodies and technology. It's exceedingly self centered and arrogant to assume that visitors would operate with the same motivation that our more primitive and violent ancestors had.

2) They need rersources and can only get them over our dead bodies. This part I CAN call bullshit on. Here's why:

Any of these things can be found in great abundance elsewhere. Asteroids, moons, nebulea. Basically they could be poaching any resource they need through un-inhabited space and never even have to interact with the locals on our little blue ball.

Also, a race so obssesed with resources that they would travel to other stars for them is probably fairly concerned with waste. As in, why waste resources fighting primitives when the same materials are free for the taking in all but limitless abundance in a nearby asteroid belt.

Nope. I'm not convinced. To come to the conclusioopn that aliens want to enslave us we have to make the same mistake we have been making for generations. Assuming that we are the center of the universe and the only game in town.

The farther our experience reches out into the cosmos the more we learn that this is not and has never been the case.

But what if they are space vampires or bloodsucking space lizards, in a desperate search of human blood because it is so rare they have to subjugate our world.

What if WE are the resource they need.

Let's get the Resistance together now.

I get to be Ham Tyler...master of covert operations, communications, & bad relations.

I see your point. Your V reference has convinced me completely! Sure, I know in my heart that the miniseries was a work of fiction. For this reason, I also know that we can't count on deus ex machina to save us from the reptoids this time around!